The MIT Press
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The MIT Press The MIT Press publishes the best works in selected academic disciplines. One of the largest and most respected university presses in the world, The MIT Press is known for quality, innovation, and distinctive design. The Press publishes in diverse fields including art and architecture, cognitive science, computer science, economics, environmental studies, neuroscience, new media, and science, technology, and society. It publishes journals, scholarly monographs, trade books, textbooks, and reference works in print and digital formats. The MIT Press authors are drawn from throughout the global academic community. The Press is noted for its work in emerging fields of scholarship, for its strong international distribution, and for pioneering projects such as CogNet, the online community of cognitive science. Through its contributions to scholarship, The MIT Press supports the Institute’s mission of advancing knowledge; through its award-winning publications, the Press extends the visibility of the MIT name around the world. FY2011 Highlights This year was notable for three new publishing experiments that brought recognition to The MIT Press. All three were informed by our ongoing commitment to serving the academic fields in which we publish. Our authors use new technologies to create work, their readers use new digital devices for reading and research, and both have high expectations for how quickly new work is made public. Choosing where to put our resources has never been more challenging, but experiments help us explore new opportunities. In September 2010 we published an “instant” book, Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America by William Freudenburg and Robert Gramling. In order to make this comprehensive analysis of the oil spill available to readers at the time it was most relevant, we followed an accelerated schedule that resulted in a published e-book edition only four weeks after the receipt of the final manuscript. The print edition followed three weeks later (in comparison to the seven months required for our usual short schedule). Despite a sales process entirely outside of our usual seasonal catalog cycle, we achieved full retail distribution of both editions. Our first iPad app, a stunning interactive edition of Branko Lukić’s imaginative design book NONOBJECT, went on sale in December 2010. This product not only introduced us to an entirely new product development and distribution process, it also stretched the boundaries of our marketing imagination as we worked to promote both the print book and the app. The NONOBJECT app was the first iPad app published by a university press. In partnership with the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture project, hosted by the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, we published our first “video book,”Learning from YouTube, by Alexandra Juhasz in February 2011. This entirely digital, multi-media project was peer reviewed and copyedited by us, MIT Reports to the President 2010–2011 1 The MIT Press supporting its publication under The MIT Press imprint. Our marketing team worked to draw media scholars and other viewers to this open access title. We enjoy the excitement of innovative projects, but we do not allow it to eclipse the immensely rewarding results that accrue from our ongoing publishing programs. Most of the time and energy of The MIT Press—and our authors—goes into the selection, development, and distribution of scholarship in print and digital forms. In FY2011, we published 220 new books, 66 new paperback editions of books, and 132 issues of journals (all print and digital), plus our two digital content portals, CogNet and CISnet. These new materials are disseminated along with the books and journal issues published in prior years. These print and digital products, comprising more than 1 million units of valued content bearing the MIT name, reach readers and researchers around the world each year. In FY2011, The MIT Press was featured as one of the evocative objects in the MIT Museum’s MIT150 Exhibition, represented by 30 of our most influential titles. These books and journals were showcased in a striking black bookcase in the shape of the distinctive MIT Press logo. Our organization continues to evolve in support of new efficiencies and better alignment with our strategic objectives. In January 2011, the University Press Group began representing us for book sales in the United Kingdom and Europe. In April 2011 our long-awaited intranet, Inside The MIT Press, was launched. The MIT Press Operating Results ($000) FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 Books sales 15,693 16,969 17,025 Journals subscription sales 6,307 6,131 5,485 Total sales 22,000 23,100 22,510 Cost of sales 10,612 10,787 10,379 Gross margin on sales 11,388 12,313 12,131 Other publishing income 2,717 2,401 2,668 Total publishing income 14,105 14,715 14,799 Operating expenses 14,010 14,406 14,759 Bookstore net 101 74 135 Net operations 196 382 175 MIT Reports to the President 2010–2011 2 The MIT Press FY2011 Financial Results The MIT Press Management Board, 2010–2011 Ann J. Wolpert (chair), director of Libraries, MIT Hal Abelson, professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT Laura Brown, senior advisor, Ithaka Ellen W. Faran, director, The MIT Press Richard Lester, professor/department head, Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT Christopher Lynch, vice president for publishing, Massachusetts Medical Society Barbara Kline Pope, executive director, National Academies Press Israel Ruiz, vice president for finance, Office of the Executive Vice President and Treasurer, MIT Bruce Tidor, professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Lynne Withey, director emeritus, University of California Press The MIT Press Editorial Board, 2010–2011 Bruce Tidor (chair), professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Steven Gass (ex officio), associate director for public services, MIT Libraries JoAnn Carmin, professor, Department of Urban Studies and Planning Beth Coleman, professor, Writing and Humanistic Studies and Comparative Media Studies Ellen W. Faran, director, The MIT Press Edward Gibson, professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Daniel Jackson, professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science David Kaiser, professor, Program in Science, Technology, and Society Robert Townsend, professor, Department of Economics Books Division revenues ($000) FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 Net sales 15,693 16,969 17,025 Other publishing income 1,100 786 783 Total books revenues 16,793 17,755 17,808 MIT Reports to the President 2010–2011 3 The MIT Press Books Division FY2011 Revenues New Books in FY2011 The MIT Press published or distributed 220 original books and 66 new paperback editions this year. New books by MIT authors published during FY2011 included: Alexander, Philip, A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT Carmin, JoAnn, Environmental Inequalities Beyond Borders Cote, Owen, Contending with Terrorism Gibson, Edward, The Processing and Acquisition of Reference Holmström, Bengt, Inside and Outside Liquidity Kaiser, David, editor, Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision Keyser, Samuel, Mens et Mania: The MIT Nobody Knows Murray, Janice, editor, Collected Scientific Papers of Paul Samuelson, Volumes 6 and 7 Simchi-Levi, David, Operations Rules Singer, Irving, Modes of Creativity Smith, Merrit Roe, Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution A complete list of all new titles published by The MIT Press during FY2011 is provided in Appendix A at the end of this report. Awards The MIT Press books and authors garnered numerous publishing prizes and awards throughout the past year. Honors were granted by professional and academic associations from a variety of disciplines, recognizing the excellence of our titles and their significant contributions to scholarship. A selection of the most notable award winners from FY2011 is presented in Appendix B. The MIT Press Acquisitions Editors Gita Manaktala, editorial director Marguerite Avery, senior acquisitions editor, science, technology, and society, information sciences Ada Brunstein, senior acquisitions editor, computer science, linguistics Roger Conover, executive acquisitions editor, visual and cultural studies John Covell, senior acquisitions editor, economics, finance, business Philip Laughlin, senior acquisitions editor, cognitive science and philosophy Jane Macdonald, acquisitions editor, economics, finance, business Clay Morgan, senior acquisitions editor, environmental studies, bioethics MIT Reports to the President 2010–2011 4 The MIT Press Robert Prior, executive acquisitions editor, life sciences, neuroscience, quantitative biology Doug Sery, senior acquisitions editor, new media, design, game studies Acquisitions The MIT Press acquires books in the fields of architecture and contemporary art, biology and the life sciences, cognitive science, computer science, economics and finance, environmental studies, information and communication, linguistics, neuroscience, new media studies, political science, and science, technology, and society. Although the Press faces competition in these fields, we maintain a distinct profile within each one. Our acquisitions approach includes the cultivation of extensive networks of scholars worldwide, a healthy pipeline of projects, and a selective signing process that includes both internal and external review. High-quality editing, design, production, marketing, and sales representation